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Opinion: Turn lane on Lexington won't solve problems

July 29, 2005

We suppose one should be grateful for small favors, but we have to say that the favor granted to the residents of northeast Danville this week by the state highway department was microscopic.

In response to requests over a long period of years for a stoplight on Lexington Avenue at Seminole Trail and Barbee Way, a state highway official announced at a city commission meeting Monday that the state would put in a left turn lane at the intersection.

Certainly, the left-turn lane would make it safer for cars turning left off of Lexington at the intersection, and it would cut down on some dangerous lane-changing.

But it won't make it any easier for motorists coming out of Seminole and Barbee Way to get onto Lexington. In fact, the lane could make the situation worse.

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The main problem in that stretch of road is speed. The stated speed limit - 45 miles an hour - is too fast for the volume of traffic and the number of side streets and businesses that empty onto Lexington. Adding a turn lane will just allow motorists to go that much faster because they won't have to worry about anybody stopping to turn left.

What that stretch of road really needs is a stoplight - as the residents have requested - to allow residents of the subdivisions on both sides of the road to safely enter and exit Lexington. A stoplight also would serve the useful purpose of slowing down traffic.

Since Lexington is a state highway, there isn't anything the city can do about the stoplight or the speed limit, but there is one thing that city can do: The police can write enough tickets on Lexington so that motorists at least will obey the speed limit.

It's amazing the calming effect the sight of blue lights can have on motorists in a hurry.

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